


The Cold Hard Facts

by GE72



Category: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Genre: Gen, Newspaper story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 19:55:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11951487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GE72/pseuds/GE72
Summary: A newspaper story about the events of "Cold Comfort."





	The Cold Hard Facts

From the New York Ledger  
April 5, 2003

Spencer Durning, a millionaire businessman and philanthropist, was arrested in connection to the murder of Eloise Kitteridge yesterday by New York City police.

Durning had Miss Kitteridge, 33, of Manhattan, murdered to gain access to the remains of her father, the late Randolph Kitteridge, a former Senator from the state of New York. Randolph Kitteridge died last month from emphysema. 

Durning, head of the charitable Durning Foundation, will be charged with second degree murder and extortion in connection with the death of Miss Kitteridge in New York State Superior Court later this week.

“This was a very twisted case,” said New York County prosecutor Ron Carver to reporters outside One Police Plaza. “Spencer Durning was a man who resorted to murder to save his legacy.”

Miss Kitteridge had been in a custody battle with her brother, Jack, a Senate candidate, over the remains of their father. Mr. Kitteridge wanted their father interred at Arlington National Cemetery as per his request in his will, but Miss Kitteridge had a codicil in which her father expressed his wishes to be cryogenically frozen alongside her. But because of the death of Miss Kitteridge, the Senator’s remains reverted to the custody of Jack Kitteridge.

Eloise Kitteridge was murdered in a restaurant women’s room two weeks ago by a killer hired by Durning. The police are still searching for the killer.

Since her death, the remains of Eloise Kitteridge were taken to a cryogenic facility in Arizona.

Durning used her death to blackmail Jack Kitteridge, and gain access to the remains, before returning the body to his custody. Police know the reason behind the blackmail but have not divulged the information.

Phone calls for a statement by the Kitteridge campaign have not been returned.

According to police reports, Durning had the brain of the late senator removed from the body for use in a study of Alzheimer’s Disease. 

It has been learned that Senator Kitteridge, during a presidential run in 1976, had contracted early onset Alzheimer’s. After he had dropped out of the race, Senator Kitteridge somehow beat the disease and returned to the senate until he retired in 1995.

During a police interrogation by detectives Robert Goren and Alex Eames at One Police Plaza, Durning, whose son Nicholas Durning was also present, let slip the motive to his crimes.

Nicholas Durning was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s but his condition was kept hidden from him by his father. Nicholas believed he had a brain aneurysm. 

Spencer Durning was having doctors in Switzerland study the late senator’s Kitteridge brain to find a cure for the early onset Alzheimer’s afflicting his son.

In a heated exchange upon his son’s realization that he had early onset Alzheimer’s, Spencer Durning blamed his son’s condition on “those weak genes from his mother.” Spencer Durning’s wife had died from Alzheimer’s some years ago.

After Durning’s arrest, Detective Goren told reporters, “Mr. Durning wanted his legacy to live on, through his foundation. But the sad part is, as much as he wants to be remembered, soon, his own son won’t even remember him.”


End file.
